1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to a method, device, system and computer program product for transmitting setting data to devices on a network.
2. Related Art
A conventional technique for transmitting setting data is to transmit the setting data from a single device to multiple devices at a time via a network. An example of such a single device is described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 9-149076 (hereafter, referred to as JP HEI 9-149076). According to the technique disclosed in JP HEI 9-149076, setting data for facsimile devices is prepared in a server, and transmitted from the sever to the facsimile devices at a time.
According to the technique, it is unnecessary to conduct an individual setting operation for each of the facsimile devices. Therefore, setting for the facsimile devices is made easier.
Pieces of setting data currently set to devices connected to the network are not always equal to one another. Therefore, there may be a case where, if new setting data is transmitted to the devices at a time, the new setting data for a certain device may be different from setting data previously set for the device, but identical to setting data previously set for another device.
However, for each of the devices it is difficult to check whether setting data is to be changed before the setting data is transmitted. For this reason, if inappropriate setting data is transmitted by error to the devices simultaneously, a phenomenon may occur in which unnecessary setting data update is made for non-target devices (devices which are not targeted for a setting data update) and a necessary setting data update is not made for target devices (devices which are targeted for the setting data update).